Eddie Vedder’s west coast solo tour swung by the City of Angels on April 12th and 13th for a two-night stint at the historic Wiltern Theater near downtown LA (dubbed "The Wiltern" due to its location on the corner of Wilshire & Western Boulevard).  The venue was flanked with dedicated fans hours before the show as crowds lined the sidewalk in hopes of scoring what was quite possibly the hardest ticket in Los Angeles, even for well-connected industry folks.  Inside, the theatre bustled with loud, rambunctious fans, eager to see the Pearl Jam front-man take the stage.

As Vedder appeared from behind the curtain to screams of “I Love you, Eddie!” he proceeded to settle in to his intimate stage setup, consisting of a reel-to-reel tape player, road cases, and a large amplifier. Vedder opened both performances with the Daniel Johnston cover “Walking the dog”, and although Saturday and Sunday’s set-lists contained mostly the same songs, he was able to create two totally different musical experiences on back-to-back nights.

Eddie’s deep baritone voice and heartfelt lyrics made it seem like time was standing still as he flowed through his catalogue, playing  material from the "Into the Wild” movie, in addition to original Pearl Jam songs and unique covers like “Masters of War” (Bob Dylan), “Millworker” (James Taylor), and “Trouble” (Cat Stevens). “Porch”, which originally appeared on Pearl Jam’s album “Ten”, was a crowd favorite, closing the show on Sunday before an epic set of encores.    

 The real treat came towards the end of the evening on Sunday when Eddie invited Ben Harper to take the stage with him for a few songs.  The two finished up with an incredible version of “All Along the Watchtower” with Harper on lap-guitar trading licks back and forth with Vedder. This was the icing on top of the cake for the crowd as everyone left the venue with a glow as they slipped back into the warm LA night.